It’s hard enough when a beloved book is made into a film for a director to overcome people’s preconceived notions of the characters. But when you’re working on the visual elements of a project that’s based on a cult-turned-contemporary classic book that’s been made into an acclaimed and highly stylized film, it’s exponentially harder to compete with the cherished visions people hold in their head. And when you factor in that the protagonist in the movie was played by Brad Pitt at peak cool, improving on veritable perfection is nigh on impossible.

That’s the challenge comic artist Cameron Stewart faced when he got the gig to turn Fight Club, which was first a book written by Chuck Palahniuk and then a film directed by David Fincher, into a comic series — a concept in and of itself that many deemed to be inconceivable when Palahniuk first announced it. Such an endeavor could only be accomplished by a true comic book superhero, and Stewart certainly qualifies as one. The multi-award winning artist has a résumé that includes Batgirl, Catwoman, Scooby Doo, Seaguy, Batman & Robin, Assassin’s Creed, Amazing X-Men, and Guardians of the Galaxy, to name but a few. He also just happens to be the man responsible for transforming SuicideGirls into comic form!

We caught up with Stewart to talk about Fight Club 2 just after its release as a hardcover graphic novel. Stewart, who was busy packing for a transatlantic move from Glasgow back to his hometown of Toronto, was kind enough to take our call.

The years haven’t been kind to Sebastian, aka The Narrator, aka the co-founder of Fight Club. Having traded his position as leader of Project Mayhem — an underground organization inspired by the Cacophony Society and its precursor the Suicide Club — for all the trappings of the American dream, Sebastian now has a 9 to 5 job, a wife, a home and a kid, and is the father he vowed he’d never become. Trapped in the mundanity of this seemingly cookie-cutter life, Sebastian seeks solace in his psychiatrist, Dr. Wrong, and the prescription pills he pedals. Meanwhile, Tyler Durden, Sebastian’s stalwartly subversive alter-ego, has been biding his time, plotting his comeback to wreak havoc on a society that is, for the most part, populated by sheep in need of a shepherd, or a surrogate father as writer, mythologist and philosopher Joseph Campbell might say. And thus, a new installment of junior-arsonist-turned-adult-novelist Chuck Palahniuk’s iconic Fight Club begins.

Taking comic book form, the long-awaited and much-anticipated sequel to the original 1996 Fight Club novel (on which David Fincher’s 1999 movie was based) first hit stores in May, 2015. The ten-part series paired Palahniuk’s dialog and plot with art by Cameron Stewart (whose credits include Batman, Batgirl, Catwoman, Assassin’s Creed and SuicideGirls’ own comic series, to name but a few). This sequel was something that Palahniuk resisted for many years. However, ideas sometimes have a life of their own, and this one was pulling Palahniuk back to Project Mayhem’s home on Paper Street. Now, as the series is being collected and bound together as a hardcover graphic novel (out June 28 via Dark Horse Comics), Palahnuik is working on the third installment of an idea, which like Tyler Durden, refuses to die. We caught up with Palahniuk by phone to find out more…

It’s impossible to pin down Clive Barker, the man who created the iconic Pinhead character. The multi-faceted and irrepressible filmmaker, video game designer, artist, and author travels through different mediums and genres with the kind of ease that a shapeshifter might exchange forms. Take, for example, his current diverse slate of creative output. He’s recently released anniversary editions of two of his most popular novels: Weaveworld and Cabal, which respectively reside towards opposite ends of the fantasy/horror spectrum (something that Barker envisions as a boundaryless continuum). Meanwhile he’s writing his next adult novel and applying paint to canvas for two more installments of his popular Abarat all ages adventure, which is told in words and pictures. A new comic series, New Testament, came out earlier this year, which Barker produced with Mark Miller, who also serves as his editor and the Vice President of his production company, Seraphim. And Barker is currently presenting an art exhibition at Culver City’s Century Guild in association with the gallery’s founder and owner Thomas Negovan. Entitled Grand-Guignol, the group show will feature Barker’s paintings alongside other works he’s curated with Negovan. In addition, on Saturday the Beyond Fest will present a special screening at Hollywood’s Egyptian Theater of the Cabal Cut of Night Breed, which sees Barker’s cult classic film restored to a form that more closely resembles his original vision and the book upon which it was based.

On a recent edition of SuicideGirls Radio, the British born and internationally acclaimed master of multiple light and dark arts joined us by phone from his Beverly Hills home to talk about the varied proverbial irons he’s keeping warm with his creative fire.

[Miller and Negovan also joined us in-studio – you can view the full two-hour show here.]

The director’s Cabal Cut of Night Breed, which features over 45 minutes of long lost additional footage, will be screened at the closing night gala of the Beyond Fest at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, CA on October 26.

This Thursday, October 3rd on SuicideGirls Radio, hosts Nicole Powers and Juturna Suicide will be joined on the phone by writer, filmmaker and artist Clive Barker, and in studio by the Vice President of his Seraphim production company Mark Miller. Art historian, author, and bon vivant Thomas Negovan of the Century Guild gallery will also be joining us to talk about Barker’s forthcoming exhibition, which he is in the process of curating.

You can listen – and watch – the world’s leading naked radio show live on Thursday nights from 6 til 8 PM at our new state-of-the-art all digital home: TradioV.com/LA.

If you have questions for the SG Radio crew or our guests, you can call in during the live broadcast at: 1-855-TRV-inLA (1-855-878-4652)

For updates on all things SG Radio-related, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

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About Clive Barker

A visionary, fantasist, poet and painter, Clive Barker has expanded the reaches of human imagination as a novelist, director, screenwriter and dramatist. An inveterate seeker who traverses between myriad styles with ease, Barker has left his indelible artistic mark on a range of projects that reflect his creative grasp of contemporary media — from familiar literary terrain to the progressive vision of his Seraphim production company. His 1998 Gods and Monsters, which he executive produced, garnered three Academy Award nominations and an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. The following year, Barker joined the ranks of such illustrious authors as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Annie Dillard and Aldous Huxley when his collection of literary works was inducted into the Perennial line at HarperCollins, who then published The Essential Clive Barker, a 700-page anthology with an introduction by Armistead Maupin.

Barker began his odyssey in the London theatre, scripting original plays for his group The Dog Company, including The History of the Devil, Frankenstein in Love and Crazyface. Soon, Barker began publishing his The Books of Blood short fiction collections; but it was his debut novel, The Damnation Game, that widened his already growing international audience.

Barker shifted gears in 1987 when he directed Hellraiser, based on his novella The Hellbound Heart, which became a veritable cult classic spawning a slew of sequels, several lines of comic books, and an array of merchandising. In 1990, he adapted and directed Nightbreed from his short story Cabal. Two years later, Barker executive produced the housing-project story Candyman, as well as the 1995 sequel, Candyman 2: Farewell to the Flesh. Also that year, he directed Scott Bakula and Famke Janssen in the noir-esque detective tale, Lord of Illusions.

Barker’s literary works include such best-selling fantasies as Weaveworld, Imajica, and Everville, the children’s novel The Thief of Always, Sacrament, Galilee and Coldheart Canyon. The first of his quintet of children’s books, Abarat, was published in October 2002 to resounding critical acclaim, followed by Abarat II: Days of Magic, Nights of War and Arabat III: Absolute Midnight. Barker is currently completing the fourth in the series. As an artist, Barker frequently turns to the canvas to fuel his imagination with hugely successful exhibitions across America. His neo-expressionist paintings have been showcased in two large format books, Clive Barker, Illustrator, volumes I & II.

About Mark Miller

As the Vice President of Seraphim, Mark Alan Miller writes, produces, and directs original content alongside master of horror Clive Barker.

Mark has been working as a writer since 2005 when he started as a columnist for OCWeekly. It was this that landed him the position of assistant editor on Barker’s recently released Novel Abarat: Absolute Midnight, for which he also directed the promotional trailer.

Since 2009, Miller has been shepherding the release of the director’s cut of Barker’s classic film Nightbreed. During that time, Miller has acted as producer on an in-house cut of Barker’s movie, which has garnered worldwide interest, and been featured in magazines such as Fangoria, Rue Morgue, and Empire magazine, and was just named TotalFilm‘s 14th best extended cut of all time.

Currently, he is editing Barker’s much-anticipated The Scarlet Gospels. His work can also be seen in the bestselling Boom! Studios comic book, Hellraiser, as well as the newly released Next Testament.

About Thomas Negovan / Century Guild

Century Guild was established in 1999 and has curated objects and artworks now on permanent display in a number of museums including The Art Institute of Chicago, The Detroit Institute of Art, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The gallery moved to Culver City in December, 2012 and specializes in works from the Art Nouveau era through the Weimar Republic. Century Guild is located at 6150 Washington Blvd in Culver City, five blocks West of the Helms Bakery in the heart of the Arts District. For information on current and upcoming shows visit centuryguild.net/

**UPDATE**

ICYMI: This week’s show featuring author, filmmaker and artist Clive Barker, Mark Miller (the Vice President of Barker’s Seraphim production company), and Thomas Negovan of the Century Guild (who is curating an exhibition of Barker’s work).

What if you were diagnosed with a sexually transmitted disease and only had six-months to live? What would you do? Would you quit your job? Would you tell the people in your life that matter the most exactly what they meant to you? Would you travel the world? Would you just crawl into a hole and wait to die?

Being handed a death sentence is nothing anyone can fathom until it’s happened to them, but those questions are answered through a new comic, Death Sentence by Montynero and Mike Dowling – see trailer:

As the tagline reads: “The virus is going to enhance you and then kill you. There is no cure.” Verity Flett was one of the unfortunate souls diagnosed with the debilitating disease known only as the G+ virus, and her story along with several others will play out on the pages of Death Sentence. She was kind enough to speak with us about her role in this new ongoing saga:

Damon Martin: As you understand it, what exactly is the G+ virus?

Verity Flett: It’s an STD that enhances your abilities – but kills you in six months. I’ve got it worse than most and I’m trying to find out why.

DM: There are no words that can describe what it’s like to literally be told you only have months to live, but if you were to tell us what went through your mind on that day what was happening?

VF: Disbelief. Numbness. Fear. Then I got angry. You look at all the other fuckers wasting their time – cheating and lying – and you think…why me? What did I do?!! But fuck it, six months is six months. I’m not done yet.

DM: I haven’t seen someone walk out of their job in a more epic way this side of Kevin Spacey in American Beauty. You certainly left yours in an interesting way. Any regrets?

VF: Fuck regrets! Are you high?! Dude’s lucky I didn’t knock him out!

DM: With time running out, was there any one thing you wanted to do or accomplish?

VF: I wanna paint. I always figured there’d be time, but…shit kept happening! And there’s someone I’d like to see. Make things right, if I can.

DM: What can you tell us about what happened at the Royal London Hospital?

VF: Man…those poor people! If I could go back, I would. But it wasn’t me who instigated that shit! One second we’re chatting and the next they’re all on me with handcuffs and a needle. What the fuck would you do? I felt all this heat, all these frequencies on my skin – and I rejected the lot. Threw it right back out. I don’t have a fuckin’ clue how it happened it and I hope to god there’s no repeat.

DM: If you had one message for all the other people out there with the G+ virus what would it be?

VF: Run.

To read Verity’s story and about the rest of those infected, check out Death Sentence #1, hitting stores on October 9, 2013. The series will also be available to read on the iPad, iPhone, Web, Android and Kindle Fire, exclusively through the comiXology app and comiXology.com. For more information follow @comicstitan.

Star Wars: Episode VII is set to hit theaters in 2015. It has been confirmed that the film will focus on the next generation of the Skywalker and Solo families. Mark Hamill has been in talks to reprise his role as Luke Skywalker in the upcoming movies. Hamill mentioned that he has talked in depth with Lucas about this and has been told that if the original actors don’t reprise their roles, they won’t be recast, but instead they would be written out of the story. It doesn’t look like that will be the case though as Harrison Ford has been confirmed to be reprising the part of Han Solo in Episode VII.

In case three more episodes of Star Wars weren’t enough, Disney is planning on releasing Star Wars spin-off solo adventures. The spin-off stories will allow them to establish character backgrounds and lore that wouldn’t make it into the main movie. Everyone’s favorite mini Jedi Master, Yoda, will be taking the first solo movie. That’s not all though, both young Han Solo and Boba Fett are set to receive solo films as well. There is no word on when Disney plans to start releasing these movies or what kind of movies they will be; I could see them being computer animated movies done by Disney or Pixar.

After much speculation, Entertainment Weekly may have officially confirmed and spoiled the identity of Benedict Cumberbatch’s character in Star Trek: Into Darkness. In an article they posted the title: “Voyage Into the New Star Trek Kirk & Khan.” The title was changed to exclude the final names, but it hit the internet that way and there are plenty of screen shots to prove it. It looks like all the Khan rumors were true and Cumberbatch will be reprising the role of the iconic villain.

Between directing Star Wars and Star Trek, J.J. Abrams life has to be getting pretty busy. He is now looking at taking on another dynamic project. J.J. Abrams and Valve games studios are in talks to see if they can do Portal and Half-Life movies. Half-Life and its spin-off Portal are both award winning games made by Valve. The games are story driven, so there is movie potential for both titles. But does J.J. Abrams really have the time to take on yet another project?

The Avengers cast assembled at the Oscars to present the awards for Cinematography and Visual Effects. Avengers only received one Oscar nomination in the Visual Effects category, which they then had to present to Life of Pi. Still the Avengers legacy lives on as Marvel moves into ‘Phase 2’ and S.H.I.E.L.D. series begins filming. Marvel’s Agent M gave us our first sneak peak of the S.H.I.E.L.D. set, although it’s mostly a tease.

One of the newest Iron Man 3 posters shows Sir Ben Kingsley as the Mandarin with his ten rings of power. Some leaked concept art has revealed more suit designs for Iron Man and also gives possible spoilers for later movies. The first suit is Tony’s new ‘Space Armor’ designed specifically for going back into space. The second concept art was for the ‘Hulkbuster Armor’ a set of Armor specifically designed to fight Hulk. Could the Avengers sequel have Hulk as a villain or at least an Iron Man and Hulk showdown? Speculation aside, in a recent interview Iron Man 3 writer Shane Black gave some spoilers about the after credits scene. Apparently, at the end of the movie, Tony will receive an SOS from Star-Lord creating the first tie in for the Guardians of the Galaxy. He will then head off into space, saying this time he is ready with his Space Armor.

Batman has had a rough year in the DC New 52 comic universe. First, he fought his way through the Night of the Owls just to have to deal with Joker’s return in Death of the Family. Though no one in the family actually died as the Death of the Family story arc drew to an end, the Joker successfully pulled at the strings of distrust and tore the Bat-family apart. However, just because no one died during the Death of the Family event, that doesn’t mean the Bat-family is safe. Last week, in Batman Incorporated #8, Damian Wayne, the current Robin, was murdered. His death is reminiscent of the death of Jason Todd, except most comic fans bet that Damian Wayne will take after his mother’s side and end up resurrected in the Lazarus Pit within the year.

On the horror side of things, the Evil Dead remake is set to arrive in theaters on April 12 this year. A new all red poster for the film was released, that promises it will be the ‘most terrifying movie you will every experience’. A new Red Band trailer was released for the film as well that teases a horrifying return to the cult classic, demon rape trees included.

The Zombieland television series is picking up some steam, and some cast members while they’re at it. The kids in the movie have been cast. Tyler Ross will play the part of Columbus and Izabela Vidovic has been cast as Little Rock. That’s not all, Maiara Walsh will be playing the role of Wichita. The series is currently being produced for Amazon as an original series.

Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes are back at it with their new Jay & Silent Bob’s Super Groovy Cartoon Movie. The movie was directed by Steve Stark, who Smith and Mewes met online. The entire project cost just $69,000. They are planning on taking the movie on tour the same way Smith toured Red State. The Super Groovy Cartoon Movie is coming this April.

Finally, there are a lot of ‘How It Should Have Ended” videos out there, but the nerd Generalissimo Stan Lee has declared how a few nerd favorites should have really concluded. Not only is this one of the best Stan’s Rants yet, but you would be hard pressed to find a nerd that disagrees with him.

On Saturday March 23, 2013 some of your favorite Suicide Girls will be signing our new coffee table photo book entitled Hard Girls, Soft Light at Meltdown Comics in Hollywood. The event kicks off at 7 PM, but make sure to get down to Meltdown early because the first 25 people to get their copy of Hard Girls, Soft Light signed will receive a free one-year membership to SuicideGirls!

Afterwards join local Suicide Girls as well as Brewin, Rigel and Radeo for an official after party at Verdugo Bar in Glassell Park. Interested in being a Suicide Girl? Introduce yourself to our model coordinator, Rigel Suicide, and show her what you are made of.